Use Cases

Incorporating plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) into the Smart Grid according to evolving security and privacy standards is a complex task involving multiple disciplines.

Utilities, researchers, and regulators have adopted the use case methodology used in system analysis to identify, clarify, and organize the Smart Grid requirements development efforts. In short, a use case methodology records sequences of interactions between systems and users in an environment. Traditional use cases organize functional requirements, model the goals of system interactions and describe one main flow of events. A use case in the PEV/Smart Grid context, for example, would list all of the connecting steps and information exchanges required when a PEV plugs in at a public charging station.

preSAGE use cases include additional requirements and information. The template we have developed ties the privacy impact of each information exchange to privacy requirements and maps the authentication requirements of each transaction. Explicitly requiring system designers to consider these particular attributes will facilitate the development Smart Assured Grid Ecosystem.